HW Campaign: Bridge of Sighs
|image = M14 Bridge of Sighs.jpg |game = Homeworld |player = Mothership Fleet |enemy = Taiidan High Guard |prim-obj = Destroy Hyperspace Inhibitor |sec-obj = Destroy Hyperspace Gates |previous = HW Campaign: Karos Graveyard |next = HW Campaign: Chapel Perilous }} In Mission 14, the Mothership Fleet encounters a hyperspace inhibitor protected by a large fleet of Taiidan frigates, preventing access to the Homeworld. Overview After helping out the Taiidan Rebellion Leader in the Karos Graveyard, the fleet arrives near the most vulnerable inhibitor station, tasked with destroying it and creating an entrance to the Hiigara System. Mission Objectives Primary Objectives * Destroy Hyperspace Inhibitor Secondary Objectives * Destroy Hyperspace Gates Research * Sensors Array - Leads to Sensors Array Strategy This mission is the longest of them all and it will likely take you days to complete it. This is because there is a ton of firepower all up for grabs, courtesy of the Taiidan. You should arrive in this mission with nearly all the same ships of the previous mission, although it is recommended to have 40 Salvage Corvettes (retire every other corvette you have to build this number) to steal all the enemy vessels. Luck is with the Kushan in this mission since the enemy AI is the dumbest yet. The reason the AI is so dumb is simply because they will only target one ship and could not care less about every other ship. This means you can capture them without fear of losing a single Salvage Corvette. Neat huh? It won't work for long though, since the AI will eventually get wind to the plan, which will likely mean you will need to send a different Proximity Sensor. Repeat this tactic until every Ion Frigate has been scooped up (if you are having problems with the Ion Frigates not going into Military Parade with the Kushan Mothership properly, then either retire them or put them on Military Parade with a Carrier). Around the map are 3 Hyperspace Gates, which will be activated either by attacking them or entering the sphere at any point and triggering the cutscene sometime later. The attack force consists of multiple Interceptors, Bombers, Heavy Corvettes and Support Frigates. If the gate isn't destroyed quickly, some Destroyers and Missile Destroyers will appear, but if you want to, capture them and add them to your fleet. Once you've salvaged a healthy portion of the enemy fleet, head in and destroy the inhibitor, which will usually fall quickly. You can either capture the carrier or destroy it, but it will serve no purpose to your fleet. However, it would be pretty wise to capture the various Super Capital Ships around the inhibitor (Heavy Cruiser and Destroyers), but you'll need a different proximity sensor to be able to capture them. Also, it would be prudent as well to capture the Cloak Generators, as there are several of them. Note that you may lose some Salvage Corvettes by them slamming into a ship, so make sure you have plenty near by to help out. After destroying the inhibitor, prepare your fleet and hyperspace off to the next mission. Tips * The source code reveals that, due to the excessive numbers of enemy ships on this mission, the AI was developed somewhat differently for this mission alone. The differing AI, which is described as "being an optimisation Mission 14", indicates that enemy ships will target whatever ship you send near to them first and ignore everyone else, until the target ship has been destroyed or removed from play such as via retirement or scuttle. This optimisation is primarily the reason behind the strategy allowing for large ship capture on this mission. * Do not bother attempting to harvest any of the resources on this map as most of them are inside the sphere and the enemy will be using Resource Collectors in large numbers. * The hyperspace gates produce only one attack force. Once either the ships are destroyed or captured, they will become redundant as no further forces will be sent through. You cannot capture them and attempt to use them yourself. * Once you have researched Sensors Array technology, your Research Ships serve no further purpose in the game (Sensors Array is the final technology). You cannot retire them though, so they must be scuttled or force-attacked by your own ships. Bugs * If you follow the strategy of capturing ships from the sphere, in certain circumstances, trying to capture too many at once might cause the salvage capture queuing system to get bugged and send multiple ships into a Carrier, if one is in your fleet. If this happens too often, the Carrier will become bugged and is unable to accept retiring capital ships or any other captured capital ships for your fleet: they will just loiter in the holding pattern as if they are waiting for a ship to exit or enter the vessel. You can generally observe this bug happening when any captured capital ship does not appear to be moving at all and is idling, and attempts to capture it again with salvagers does nothing. The only fix is to either move the Carrier in the hopes the drifting ship will go towards the captured point in the Carrier, or retire and rebuild the Carrier to clear the queue. Trivia * The name of this mission might be a reference to several real life bridges called the Bridge of Sighs: one such bridge can be found in Venice. ru:HW1 Миссия 14: Мост вздохов Bridge of Sighs Category:Homeworld: Missions